This lesson plan teaches how to select the landing site for a planetary surface investigation, using the 5E learning cycle. Students will be able to determine a landing site for their Mars rover; work with their team to summarize information and...(View More) identify important details in non-fiction writing; research Gale Crater through an online interactive module; use Google Earth Mars to learn about Mars surface features; gather and analyze data to conduct a scientific experiment; collect and record data in a science notebook to draw logical and scientific conclusions; define and identify the role of controls and variables in teams’ scientific or technical questions; and differentiate between weather and climate. The lesson plan has a number of appendices, including standards alignment. This is Lesson 8 of the elementary school version of the 6 week Mars Rover Celebration curriculum.(View Less)

This is an activity about electromagnetism and the Sun. First, learners will do a KWL activity using six vocabulary words. Next, they will build an electromagnet and investigate how it works. Finally, learners will relate the workings of their...(View More) electromagnet to a Solar Dynamics Observatory magnetogram image of the Sun. Per group of learners, this activity requires materials such as a length of insulated wire, alligator clips, a 2-D-battery holder, two D-batteries, and a nail.(View Less)

This is an activity about scale. Participants will arrange imagery of Earth and many other space objects in order of their size from smallest to largest, their distance from Earth's surface, their temperature from coolest to hottest, and/or their...(View More) age from youngest to oldest. By manipulating these images and discussing their ideas, children and adults represent and confront their own mental models of space and time.(View Less)

The 9-session NASA Family Science Night program emables middle school children and their families to discover the wide variety of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics being performed at NASA and in everyday life. Family Science Night...(View More) programs explore various themes on the Sun, the Moon, the Stars, and the Universe through fun, hands-on activities, including at-home experiments. Instructions for obtaining the facilitator's guide are available on the Family Science Night site.(View Less)

This 12-lesson unit includes inquiry-based lessons about the surface features of the Moon and the Earth and how these two worlds formed and continue to evolve. Students participate in real science as they help lunar scientists map the surface of the...(View More) Moon with MoonMappers, an online citizen science project that lets the public analyze real data from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. The lessons in this unit follow the 5E instructional model. Includes an overview of citizen science, glossary of lunar feature vocabulary, alignment to NGSS and NSES, and featured links. Each of the lessons addresses different topics and can be used together as a unit, or independently.(View Less)

This is an activity to reinforce concepts learned about the Sun, the Sun, Earth, and Moon system and eclipses. Learners will communally discuss their knowledge of these concepts briefly, and will then complete a series of worksheets and writings to...(View More) demonstrate grasp of content. This is Activity 15, the final activity of a larger resouce entitled Eye on the Sky and is meant to follow the preceding 14 activities in the resource. These worksheets and writings would ideally be added to students' portfolios accumulated throughout this suite of lessons and can serve as a summative assessment of student work throughout the lesson suite.(View Less)

This is a detailed lesson about heat transfer and distance. Learners will design and conduct experiments to answer the question, "how does distance and inclination affect the amount of heat received from a heat source?" They will measure heat change...(View More) as a function of distance or viewing angle. From that experiment, they will identify how the MESSENGER mission to Mercury takes advantage of these passive cooling methods to keep the spacecraft comfortable in a high-temperature environment. This is lesson 3 from MESSENGER Education Module: Staying Cool. Note: the student guide starts on p. 24 of the PDF.(View Less)